1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for providing the application force generated by a parking brake in a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Parking brakes for generating an application force that brings the vehicle to a halt are already known in general; these parking brakes have an electric brake motor, which when actuated, presses a brake piston supporting a brake pad against a brake disk. A parking brake of this type is described in published German patent document DE 103 61 042 B3, for example.
Under certain conditions it may be useful to perform retensioning after a period of time following the first tensioning of the parking brake, so that a loss in application force caused by cooling of the brake disk is able to be compensated. However, it must be taken into account here that the hydraulic vehicle brake is acting on the brake piston as well, so that if hydraulic pressure is active in the brake system, the electromechanically set application force and a hydraulic application force are superposed.